He Means Business!

Bill John Baker means business.  He told us so, and one of his first orders of business looks to be replacing the Cherokees who run our businesses.   

According to the Cherokee Phoenix, Baker is appointing five new board members, and giving the boot to four folks who are on the board of directors.

The people who Baker does NOT want to run our businesses are:  the former CEO of CITGO, the third largest independent oil refiner in America (David Tippeconic), the executive vice president for financial services for Bancfirst, a bank with $5 billion in assets (Jay Hannah), the top guy at one of the biggest, if not the biggest, commercial real estate company in Tulsa (Mitch Adwon of Adwon Properties) and a financial executive at one of Oklahoma’s only Fortune 500 companies, ONEOK (David Ballew).  All are Cherokee.  All have helped, in some degree, build businesses that now make $90 million a year.

The people Baker wants to replace them are: Tommye Sue Wright, Bob Berry and Michael Watkins, of Tahlequah, as well as Stilwell’s Rex Earl Starr and Brent Taylor from Pryor.  The Cherokee Phoenix sums up their experience:

“A real estate agent with Century 21, Wright manages more than 50 sales agents and support staffers and is responsible for more than $60 million in real estate sales annually...

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Berry is the founder of American Nursery Products and Tri-B Nurseries. His family owns two nurseries and Tahlequah’s Cherry Springs Golf Course... 

Starr is a private practice attorney whose clients include five school districts in Adair and Sequoyah counties...

A graduate of Northeastern State University, Taylor is an entrepreneur who has brokered lease agreements with Jackson Hewitt, Pizza Hut, Covington Finance and Pryor Creek Music Festivals...

Watkins retired earlier this year after eight years as chief financial officer and controller of Park Hill Plants. He is a former vice president of Cherokee Nation Enterprises, now Cherokee Nation Entertainment.”  

All of these people have had good careers.  The Phoenix doesn’t mention it, but we’ll give Baker the benefit of the doubt that they are all Cherokee until we're told otherwise.  And maybe it’s just us, but when you are replacing a guy who has run one of the biggest companies in the world with a guy who’s resume includes lines like ‘brokered lease agreements with Pryor Creek Music Fesitivals,’ or one of the top guys at a $5 billion bank with a guy who does a little legal work for “five schools in Adair and Sequoyah counties” that seems like a downgrade.